1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an inkjet printer comprising removable ink cartridges and a method for mounting ink cartridges.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are known inkjet printers in which inks supplied from removable ink cartridges are discharged from recording heads onto recording media for image recording.
In the inkjet printers of this type, a plurality of ink cartridges are mounted on a holder to effect high-quality recording. In some cases, however, these ink cartridges may be wrongly mounted on the holder. To avoid this, for example, each ink cartridge may be formed with indentations for wrong attachment prevention.
If each ink cartridge is formed with the indentations, however, its production costs are increased, and in addition, its shape or pattern is restricted.
An inkjet recording apparatus that can solve these problems is described in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2003-246079. This recording apparatus comprises reading means, moving means, and determining means. The reading means reads identification information attached to an ink container that is mounted on an ink container holder. The moving means moves an ink supply needle and the ink container mounted on the ink container holder between first and second positions. In the first position, the needle and container is separated from one another. In the second position, the needle is stuck in the container so that ink can be supplied to a recording head through them. Further, the determining means determines whether or not to move the needle and container to the second position, based on the result of reading by the reading means.
In this inkjet recording apparatus, the reading means reads the identification information of each ink container every time the ink container is mounted on the ink container holder. Based on the result of reading, if the identification information of the ink container is determined to be appropriate, a motor (drive source) is driven to move the ink container and/or its corresponding ink supply needle. Thereupon, mounting (or connecting) the container and needle is finished.